“G20 should increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of the international institutions”

The great crisis of 2008-2009 has led to one major change – and thus to progress – in global governance; the G20 replacing the G7 as the premier international forum for discussing global cooperation. The London and Pittsburgh G20 meetings built confidence, proposed an increase in the war-chest of the IMF at a critical time and contributed to rebuilding the confidence shattered by the worldwide financial collapse.

The proposals made were broadly adopted at meetings in Istanbul of the World Bank and IMF, with the specifics awaiting more work, particularly when it comes to the significant shift towards emerging countries needed in voting weights and to the mechanisms of multilateral macroeconomic policy coordination.

The recent sequence of events should remind us that an informal meeting of leaders, even when they represent the most important countries, cannot replace the governing bodies of the international institutions of the UN system, including the IMF and the World Bank. Global cooperation requires burden sharing and coordinated action within the framework of these institutions.

Progress on issues such as long term financial stability, climate protection, effective control of infectious disease and the peaceful management of nuclear energy depends on how the G20 will be able to provide leadership, while recognising that all nations and peoples must have a say and must be part of a legitimate international system.